The team, Rohit Sharma did not divulge much information and kept the secret going until toss time.
In a similar overcast and nippy day in London the previous Tuesday Rohit is one of the 4 members of the squad who turned on for practice with an option to take part. R Ashwin, Umesh and K S Bharat were the other players who attended the morning session with net bowlers. Rohit was observed holding his thumb after hitting the nets, but it was not apparent that he would be experiencing any discomfort.
In terms of team composition, Rohit did not give much information and was expected to keep the suspense up until the toss time. India must decide whether they choose to go with two spinners or four pacer.
“I’ve not stated that Ashwin isn’t going to play. We’ll have to wait until tomorrow because a thing I’ve observed here is that the pitch is actually changing from each day.” he told reporters when asked if it would be difficult to cut out Ashwin.
“Today it’s looking like it does. Tomorrow it could be different, but who is to say. The message to the players has been quite clear. All 15 should be prepared to go at any moment at any time,” he said.
The pitch was green in look for less than 24 hours in the past. And if conditions are cloudy in the morning, an additional pace option could prove useful.
“I have seen it (pitch) last night, but I wasn’t able to look it up this morning. However, it’s like it will be a great help to seamers in the long run. Given the overhead conditions it’s likely to help seamstresses quite a little.
“I don’t know the magnitude but the pitch can change quite a lot in this region in the globe. For instance, when we played the final test here at the Oval the pitch looked like this.
“And after that, as the game progressed and the day went along, it became faster and quicker, but also slower and slower. The reverse swing was in play on the 5th. We’re going to look at all of those variables (before making a decision on the eleventh),” said the captain.
The Oval, which hosted its first Test in 1880, is hosting five days of play for the only time during June.
But, Rohit is not reading too much into this particular part of the statistic. “We’ve been hearing that there isn’t much cricket played in June here. The county season was played here. We watched an occasion to play just a few weeks ago here. It’s not just the beginning of the season that’s played on this field,” he said.
“We are fully aware of what the circumstances are and what’s going to happen over these next 5 days,” He added.
Have been discussing the errors made during the previous WTC final
India was defeated by New Zealand in the inaugural WTC final two years ago. The decision for two spinners during the overcast conditions did not work.
“Last time we played, we made several mistakes, and we’ve discussed with this squad. We also are aware of the mistakes that occurred for us during the last final of the championship. Therefore, we hope to not repeat that kind of mistake,” he said.
